# DARLING in the FRANXX (2018)

> Teen pilots in a fortified post-apocalyptic city fight gigantic organisms in giant robots while a mysterious girl pulls the prodigy Hiro into a dangerous romance.

Canonical page: https://ember.film/tv/65946

## Facts

- Seasons: 1
- Episodes: 24
- Episode runtime: 24 min
- Status: Ended
- Genres: animation, science fiction, romance, drama
- Network: TOKYO MX
- Cast: Yuto Uemura, Haruka Tomatsu, Kana Ichinose, Yuuichirou Umehara, Nanami Yamashita, Saori Hayami, Marina Inoue, Shizuka Ishigami
- TMDB rating: 7.4/10
- IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7865090/

## Ember's analysis

- Pacing: brisk
- Intensity: strong
- Complexity: layered
- Violence: moderate
- Tone: romantic, melancholic, intense, playful

## What critics say

Audiences rate the series positively, praising its striking mecha action and emotionally charged romance while noting its uneven later episodes.

## Synopsis

Darling in the FRANXX (2018) is a Japanese mecha anime series produced by TRIGGER, CloverWorks and A-1 Pictures and broadcast on TOKYO MX. Set in the distant future, it follows Hiro (Yuto Uemura), a former child prodigy and code number 016, who is raised with other orphaned children in the Birdcage, the pilot quarters of a mobile fort city built on a ruined wasteland. Their only purpose is to pilot giant robots called FRANXX against mysterious gigantic organisms known as Kyoryu. When the enigmatic girl Zero Two (Haruka Tomatsu) appears and calls him her darling, Hiro's sense of himself and his place among the pilots begins to shift. The series is a single 24-episode season told as one continuing story, with each episode pushing the young pilots deeper into combat and into the tangled feelings that bind them together. Its atmosphere mixes glossy action spectacle with romance, quiet melancholy and a coming of age sensibility shaped by isolation. Fans of Neon Genesis Evangelion, Gurren Lagann and Attack on Titan will find resonance in its teen pilots, its post-apocalyptic world and its blend of romance and mecha battle.

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